Electronic devices such as personal computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, video cameras, music players, gaming devices and car navigation systems include card connectors that allow various types of cards to be used. These include Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, Multi-media Cards® (MMC), Secure Digital® (SD) cards, miniSD® cards, xDPicture® cards, Memory Sticks®, Memory Stick Duo®, Smart Media®, Trans-Flash® memory cards, and MicroSD® cards.
Electronic devices have become significantly smaller in recent years, and so have cards and card connectors. As a result, it can be difficult for users to grasp a card with the fingers and insert the card properly into a card connector. Therefore, card connectors have been proposed in which a card is set inside a card holder and the card holder is inserted into the card connector (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a card connector of the prior art.
In this drawing, 811 is a housing for the card connector which is made of an insulating resin material and which is attached to the main body of a device such as a mobile phone. Multiple cantilevered support panel-like contacts 851 are mounted in the housing 811, and the leading ends of the contacts 851 are passed through a slot 812 formed in the housing 811 so as to be able to come into contact with electrode pads on a card (not shown).
Also, 961 is a card holder made of an insulating resin material which is inserted into an insertion slot in the housing 811 while holding a card in the internal space of the card holder. A rubber gasket 971 is mounted on the end of the card holder 961 opposite the end on the inserted side. As shown in the drawing, when the card holder 961 is inserted into the housing 811, the gasket 971 comes into contact with the inner peripheral surface of the card holder insertion slot formed in the main body of the device, sealing the space between the outer peripheral surface of the card holder 961 and the inner peripheral surface of the card holder insertion slot, and preventing contamination of the interior of the device by water and grime from the outside.